Why instructors lose pupils
Progress
There are many reason instructors lose pupils and just as many excuses from instructors. These range from the obvious such as these listed below;
- ‘My instructor kept shouting at me’
- ‘My instructor was smelly’
- ‘He always turned up late’
- ‘They kept getting angry’
- ‘The car was always dirty’
- ‘My instructor was scruffy’
- ‘He just turned up and we drove round a bit’
These are just a few examples of reasons given. However by far the two most common reasons are ‘I did not feel I was making progress’ or ‘I did not have any goals’. These two are so easily dealt with by good lesson planning. Always set objectives for your lessons and book the test in advance.
Progress sheets
Always filling in the progress sheet at the end of every lesson shows the learner what has been achieved and what still needs to be achieved.
Below is an example of a progress report card. There are some notes on the example to help you fill in your pupil’s record. After every lesson, fill in the date then record what was achieved against every subject. If a subject has not been covered yet then leave it blank. Ideally you are trying to achieve a score of 5 (independent) or a good 4 (seldom prompted) in each subject before moving on to the next subject. There is little point in trying to teach someone how to emerge from a junction if they have not yet mastered the basic controls. I used to put a circle around the subject we were planning to cover on the next lesson as a prompt and a square around if we had to revisit a subject. You can see this in the example.
Example one shows a poorly completed pupil record. You can see by the third lesson the pupil has not really achieved anything. This is typical of instructors who do not set lesson aims and just drive around letting their pupil have what they say are ‘real lessons’. There is no real focus on the lesson and no real progress is being made. This pupil would soon lose faith and move on.
Example two shows how this pupil is achieving something every lesson, progress is being made and you can clearly see the skills being developed and what the pupil will be covering on the next lesson.
It is not necessary to follow the record sheet in any precise order, as mentioned earlier it is important to fit the needs of your pupil; some pupils live in the country and some near busy roundabouts so tailor the lesson order to suit their environment!
